In a quiet portion of the desert, devastation reigned supreme. Chaos sprawled out across the landscape and now slumbered.

Shattered and blasted stones lay strewn out over a large area. An entire swimming pool-sized hole in the ground smoked vaguely, even twenty minutes after the fighting had ceased. The nearby ridges had been obliterated and leveled, with new gorges being dug with the violence of the clash.

A lizard that had somehow slumbered through the noise and quakes would wake up bewildered, finding its home and yard totally renovated. But honestly, it should probably just be glad that it had survived.

Occasionally a soft wind brushed the rough edges of these new landmarks and pushed a few pebbles to skitter down their faces, but otherwise, all was still.

Strange smelling green stains lingered upon the stone ground. Spectral remnants of the thousands of wolves were scattered across the ground like sewn seeds from a lazy farmer, becoming tiny beads of hunger and ferocity that barely maintained their form. What lingered here were the remnants of an absolute force tearing any opposition to shreds.

Occasionally, the ghost of Devick’s laugh drifted back from distant hills.

Suddenly, a small pile of stones trembled. With great care, a bedraggled Moonlight Blade shifted the stones out of the way and raised his head out of the rubble. His expression morphed between shock, fear, and frustration. As he had expected, playing dead for long enough meant that Devick had grown born and wandered away from him. However, the fact that he had been forced into submission-

“Is she gone?” The Randidly clone on his back whispered, giving all of his fury a concrete target.

“You little shit,” Moonlight Blade hissed through gritted teeth. He reached around and dug his claws into this Randidly’s shoulder. The young man skittered sideways, avoiding most of the force of the attack. His claws ripped up long gashes on his shoulder, but due to the body’s powerful regenerative properties, those wounds began to close almost as soon as he made them. And that was even when Moonlight Blade injected his image into his powerful claws.

Of course, he knew that this Randidly was not the real one; this was the foolish student of that old and fat tiger, all made to spite him. But the combination proved extremely aggravating.

Moonlight Blade stood abruptly, hoping to dislodge Yust’s grip while he was shifting. Several rocks were knocked sideways and he froze for a long moment as his instincts reminded him why he had lingered here. But the noise did not suddenly draw Devick back to their position.

Of course, his instinctual reaction only made him more furious.

So he aimed his claws and started raking at Yust’s legs, which had been wrapped around Moonlight Blade’s waist. Almost instantly, Yust’s legs turned into noodles and slipped away. The body’s quick reactions was another source of aggravation.

Eyes flashing, Moonlight Blade reached up and seized up Yust’s arms to forcibly throw the bastard off his back. But as he did that, Yust tightened his grip, quickly choking off the flow of oxygen to Moonlight Blade’s body. Obviously, he didn’t need to breathe. But nothing was quite so uncomfortable as your physical body struggling to pump blood through the neck with no success. It felt like a psychological form of drowning.

Moonlight Blade made a mental note to squeeze the throats of his victims in a show of power during the next time he was able to let loose. Perhaps he would even do so to Claudette, to vent some of this frustration. The thought was oddly arousing.

Yet that didn’t solve his current predicament; it just made him feel more frustrated. Worse, as Moonlight Blade flayed Yust’s skin and muscle from his arms just as fast as it healed back into place, Yust began to release pulsing blasts of sewage gas. Each was slightly different, somehow animated with a new cocktail of sickening source materials, so it took a few seconds for Moonlight Blade to block it from his awareness. His nose began to twitch and he tried to sneeze, but there was a horrible sense of retching as Yust’s grip on his neck didn’t allow any air to be expelled-

Moonlight Blade made another torture note: make prisoners sneeze while choking them. His arousal deepened.

The extremely high physical defense of Randidly Ghosthound combined with Moonlight Blade’s distraction when Devick arrived allowed Yust to position himself like this and there seemed very little he could do about it now. Growling, the wolfman stopped ripping away long strings of flesh from the arms gripping his neck, because he couldn’t physically do much damage to him.

He briefly considered mobilizing the full force of his image to annihilate the annoying fly, but there were two problems with that. First, his clash against Devick suggested that even the full force of his image wouldn’t be able to quickly rid him of the scourge of the Ghosthound’s body. Second, and equally as troubling, flaring his image would no doubt bring Devick rushing back to torture him.

Immediately, all that arousal vanished, extinguished by the wild cruelty he had seen in Devick’s eyes. Even Moonlight Blade had to admit he had made a mistake, disrespecting that woman. She was notoriously long held in her grudges. Even setting aside this competition, she would no doubt make trouble for him in the future.

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When Moonlight Blade stopped attacking Yust, the stinky clone hesitantly loosened his grip. Then he brought his legs back to wrap around the wolfman’s legs and shifted into a more comfortable position. Then Yust cleared his throat. “You know, we should be working together since we are stuck like this.”

Stuck? Moonlight Blade couldn’t suppress a growl from bubbling up in his chest and Yust flinched. But then he forced down his ire; if he didn’t, he would just waste more time attacking Yust’s limbs. Instead, he said, “How could you help me?”

“I know where the next portion of the treasure hunt is, based on where the other Randidly’s went,” Yust responded.

Moonlight Blade growled. It almost pissed him off more Yust had a good answer prepared. So when Yust directed him, he began to walk. About ten minutes after they started moving forward, a very familiar wave of force echoed out, shaking the ground.

Wild laughter drifted out across the desert.

Moonlight Blade paused. Then he cleared his throat. “Considering Devick is in that direction… you didn’t lie. But perhaps we should allow the situation to develop a bit before we proceed.”

“That seems intelligent,” Yust squeaked.

His voice was so pathetic that Moonlight Blade growled and ripped open a gash on his forearm.

*****

A storm of Nether silently spread out from Randidly’s position, filling the air around them with an ethereal sense of density. The energy of memory and connection branched off chaotically, but he didn’t resist those impulses. Yet no matter how much the Nether bucked and writhed, he patiently guided back into a grand pattern that rotated with him as its core. His eyes began to glow.

The storm began to churn, not relying on any image, but borrowing from all of his capabilities to create something that mimicked an image while being fueled by Nether.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Maelstrom Entity Approaches (T) has grown to Level 570!

Devick didn’t acknowledge Randidly’s preparations; she just martial her own emotional force and launched herself toward him in a single bound. Below, their reflections on the lake surface faced off silently, dyed blue.

The environment is barely acceptable, but there isn’t any choice. Randidly pressed his lips together. Already he gathered the ripples that Devick created in her charge, but there wouldn’t be enough time to draw them into his storm. Each moment saw a new surge of Nether spreading out from him, but this also would take a few more seconds before it reached the levels he wanted. Alright, Devick. Let’s see how my Nether measures up.

A pinch of Nether flared to life in front of Devick, rapidly inflating to become a barn-sized explosion of force. Devick reacted quickly, raising her arms and tearing the wave of rejection apart, but she stumbled and slowed from the impact, almost dropping into the water.

Maybe 65%? I can do better than that. Randidly reached out and seized upon the energy released by the impact, pulling it all together around him. Winds brushed at his hair as the storm began to accumulate. The air darkened and mist began to gather around his person.

A slow and genuine smile spread across Devick’s face. “Randidly Ghosthound… are you dabbling with a Nether Core, when they are forbidden within the Nexus?!? Haha! I knew I liked you, even if you continue to house those two irritating maggots. And more than dabbling, that was Synechdochence, wasn’t it? Well well well. How immense is your potential, I wonder? And how long will you be able to handle me, right now? Ha!”

And with that, Devick blurred into motion once more, faster than before. Randidly narrowed his eyes; just like he improved from their brief clashes, so too did Devick adapt and improve constantly. The constant race for an edge was quite terrifying.

But those few seconds of speech from Devick allowed Randidly to strengthen his grip on the surrounding space. Nether and natural force gushed in thick rivers around him, quickly creating visual distortions through the mist. The beginnings of electromagnet discharge began to crackle. When Devick accelerated, Randidly already reached out and gripped several pinches of Nether that popped around her, aiming to crunch her from several directions at once.

Devick reacted. Her legs flexed out and she bounced herself downward, avoiding the crush. Then she stepped, forming a foothold midair with pure emotional force, and streaked the last forty meters to arrive before Randidly.

“Now what?” Devick cackled, triumph clear on her face. She raised a fist-

-Randidly opened his right hand and unleashed a concentrated burst of natural energy. He could only gather energy from her movements and the few pinches of Nether he unleashed, but it was still a potent attack that made his wrist ache.

The blast of pure force struck Devick in the gut, even as she was a few meters away from Randidly. A look of genuine surprise crossed her face and she reeled backward and crashed down onto the shattered stone by the lakeshore.

Randidly’s eyes blazed emerald as he mobilized his Nether and ripped several large holes in the lakeshore where she had landed. It was a carpet bombardment. Unfortunately, there was something about the lake that drained away ambient natural force, however-

Grimacing, Randidly scrambled back. Devick erupted from the ground beneath him, her hand curled into a claw; she had used her crash landing as a cover to dig through the ground and approach him.

“Even this didn’t work?” Devick pouted. Then she blurred again, becoming a deadly dervish that lashed out several times in quick succession at Randidly. Her limbs seemed to bend like whips as they lashed him. He tried to grip her with Cutting Tides of Amenonuhoko to restrict her movements, but she tore right through his restrictions. He dodged sideways and she followed.

Her fist blurred upward and Randidly jerked his head back. She twisted into a heel kick and he stepped forward under the typhoon-like strike. His palm strike she deflected almost thoughtlessly. Randidly unleashed a flaring burst of Nether that impacted her back, but she didn’t flinch. With Randidly’s body, she became a titan of aggression. Her limbs lashed outward, forcing him back, directly toward the edge of the lake.

“Are you afraid of swimming?” Devick grinned at him. “Why don’t you and I take a dip? I’m sure it will be quite refreshing.”